By SHIRLEY MURRAY - Special to the Record-Eagle

TRAVERSE CITY — A mystery set in the region visited is a travel bonus. Reading PD. James “Unnatural Causes” while roaming the windswept cheerless Suffolk coast. Experiencing the terror of “King Solomon’s Carpet” by Ruth Rendell while speeding through London’s underground. Soaking up the Creole ambiance of a James Lee Burke thriller after exploring the Louisiana bayous. On a chilly winter evening in Traverse City, Summer People’ evokes the same kind of serendipity. Summer People” (Writer’s Showcase presented by Writer’s Digest, $13.95) takes place on an area peninsula that is both familiar and mysterious. Climbing Empire Bluffs for views of Sleeping Bear Dunes, hiking in remote areas, getting an inside look at affluent downstaters’ Lake Michigan homes. Eavesdropping on all the things that happen in a small community.

There are four murders in this slim book. Five, actually, counting an unrelated domestic dispute. In a new twist on mysteries, the reader witnesses every murder, watching helplessly as a paid killer lines up the crosshairs of his telescopic site, smelling the gasoline poured on a dock, being horrified as the driver of an old Triumph sports car is tailgated by a menacing truck; and agonizing with the man whose canoe is swamped by a huge power boat on Lake Michigan.

But to the sheriff and townspeople, all but the first are clearly accidents—a fire, a sports car plunged over a steep embankment, a drowning. Until Sheriff Ray Elkins begins to put the pieces together. Elkins and his evidence deputy, Sue Lawrence, are atypical for a small town law enforcement team. Ray Elkins is a local boy who gave up a teaching job at the university years ago to run for sheriff in his much-loved village.

A woman friend away in Seattle taking care of a new grandchild gives the reader early hope that a sequel might develop. Then there’s Marc Fielding and Lisa Alworth, summer people when Ray was growing up, who has each recently divorced and moved back to the area. Marc has coveted a simpler life after making his name on Wall Street, but now he’s having second thoughts about quitting his job. Lisa, a former advertising whiz, offers to package Ray’s re-election public persona. Marc and Lisa rediscover each other, and along with Ray, bond effortlessly as they brainstorm the cases while Ray vents his personal feelings and opinions to his old confidantes.

The author, Aaron Stander, has been a summer person himself for years, while working as a college professor, consultant and writer of academic works. He moved north permanently in the fall of 2000, about the time “Summer People” was published.

His careful research is evident, whether he is describing how fires get started in boats or realistic police procedures. When Ray explains to Lisa and Marc how contract killings are arranged, he admits that fewer than 10 percent are solved: “the right professional, the right tools, the right out-come. Lisa muses on the social injustice when she replies, “The right outcome for whom?”

Stander compares the attitudes of those like Ray’s family who have lived on the peninsula for generations, and the rich downstaters who invade the locals’ space in the summer.

Marc asks Ray if he remembers one of the victims, Arthur Bussey.

“No, but all you boys looked alike, dressed alike,” is the response.

Stander finds the mystery novel a useful way to explore current issues about violence and crime. Gun control. How lawyers and courts work differently for the affluent and the poor. How the media influences the community.

So how did an English professor became involved in this genre? About 10 years ago, Stander was suffering a bad back and ordered to bed, and a friend brought him a copy of Elmore Leonard’s “Freaky Deaky.” Leonard’s novels, along with those of P.D. James, Colin Dexter, Michael Connelly and lately, Josephine Tey, opened his eyes to a whole new kind of reading.

“Summer People,” written during his convalescence, is Stander’s first published fiction, but he’s working on a couple more projects, including an academic mystery. “Medieval Murders” will focus on the sudden and bizarre deaths of several medievalists in a university English department..

“Summer People” is a good first novel and subsequent ones will only get better as this professor learns the craft. For now, Stander said he plans to take ‘Summer People” on the road this summer, that is, walking the beaches in northern Michigan with a back-pack and a cooler.

“If you buy a book from me, you get a complementary wine cooler. You don’t get a deal like that from Simon and Schuster or Scribners.” If you see that guy with the back-pack and the cooler, be careful what you say. You might find your-self in his next book.

Shirley Gibson Murray is a freelance writer and book discussion group leader at Northwestern Michigan College.

Traverse City Record-Eagle—Sunday, February 18, 2001

Copyright © 2006 Aaron Stander